Being Truly Human December 2010 Newsletter

By Tim Surtell

The Trust has re-launched its website with a fresh, modern design and several new features, including the ability to listen to Phiroz’s talks while browsing the website. You can download talks in MP3 format for listening on your personal media player, and peruse our complete archive of past Newsletter articles.

Please visit beingtrulyhuman.org and let us know what you think! You can post your comments on each article, or at the foot of the homepage.

By Tim Surtell

Three newly discovered talks given by Phiroz at Dilkusha have been added to the Trust’s archive, which has necessitated re-numbering the talks in the ‘extra’ Dilkusha Talks (DX) catalogue. A few other corrections have also been made elsewhere, as detailed below.

A talk given by Phiroz Mehta at Elmau, Bavaria on 21^st September 1975

One’s own self, the instrument, must be in tune in order that the music of Transcendence may sound and be heard by us. To prepare the ground for communion (and this communion is the music of Transcendence, it is the great Song of Life throughout the universe), and remembering that prayer or meditation energizes all aspects of the psyche, good and bad alike, it is necessary to be free of the hindrances which stand in our path when we sit down specially for meditation.

You know how the mind is preoccupied with the affairs of the day, with oneself, one’s own feelings and thoughts and moods and the little problems which arise immediately we get up in the morning almost, in terms of relationships with those around us, not only the persons around us, but the actual prevailing conditions. Is it a sunny day, is it a foggy day, is it going to be nice, what are we going to eat today? And all that kind of thing. So, this preoccupation with all the little turmoil and confusion of the worldly life is an obstacle to meditation. It is like an instrument in an orchestra which is out of tune. Obviously it won’t make music until it is tuned up. Now this tuning up of the mind means that certain obvious obstructions in the mind must disappear, we must be free of them. These obstructions can be seen in this way for instance. There is all the natural grasping, the lust for pleasure, for power, for sensational experience and so on, the grasping for oneself, what we commonly call lust, in English anyway. This is one of the great obstructions, and even when the mind is not consciously occupied with these, there are very powerful forces in our whole psycho-physical being by virtue of our heritage through natural evolution. The body itself and all the psychical phenomena naturally associated with the body give rise to all this. So that is one great obstruction.

The next obstruct­ion which makes this instrument out of tune is malevolence, ill feeling, anger, everything which comes under the category of hate, of aversion. Usually this hate, aversion or anger is associated with the frustration of our desire. If our desire is prevented by something, by some circumstance or by some person, we react with anger. Anger constantly arises throughout the physical life, and all kinds of other hidden, sometimes minor forces which are allied to anger, arise in us at the same time. So this is something which the mind must be free of.

Those are two of the main obstructions. Then there are others too. There is the state of disinclination: You don’t feel like meditating, very much like a schoolchild who doesn’t feel like doing its homework, or even its schoolwork at school. There is a slowness, a feeling of falling asleep in class, sloth and torpor, as we might call it. Sometimes it is a sheer heaviness of the body. The body is somehow not properly awake. And then it is not wise to force it to be awake. Let it be restful for a time and let it become properly awake before you attempt meditation.

Then there is the state of worry, one is not calm, one is not peaceful. And when the mind is not calm one is unable just to say to oneself, “Let everything be quiet and I shall practise a little meditation.” If the mind is like that, the body is in a state of nervous tension. You see, if you force yourself to enter into meditation (and this is where you have to be particularly careful with methods which have been prevalent, for example, in India for nearly 4,000 years), and to use mantras, to repeat a word, a phrase, in order to compel the nervous disturbance to subside, then that will produce consequences in terms of reaction bodily and emotionally, which are not particularly beneficial. So you have to bear that in mind. So you see, no worry, no flurry, no tensions, be at ease. If you are fidgety in the presence of the Lord, he might blow you out of Heaven!

Then there is this question of doubt. You start wondering, “Well, what’s all this about? Am I just on a wild goose chase? Am I chasing a will-o’-the-wisp, just a firefly in the dark forest, uselessly?” And you begin to wonder what it is all about. If doubt is of that nature which is associated with real enquiry, then that doubt must not be put aside. When you meditate or when you study, question “Is this so, is it really so?” Because that is the practical, scientific approach in order to find out the truth. Never say, “Oh yes, I am on the right lines, my teacher has told me so, my past experience has told me so, I will do as before.” Then you just go round and round in a rut and you are no further: You start with ABC on the first day and the second day and the millionth day. The wrong sort of doubt is always arising for example when you come across people who always say, “Oh, I don’t agree with you, I doubt it, I doubt it.” What they are doing is not trying to enquire honestly what is the truth, but they are just having a mental argument with you, just fencing with you all the time. Whatever you say they will oppose. If you say that it is a fine day, they will say, “Oh no, no, it’s not so very fine, I doubt what you say.” And if you say it’s a wet day, “Oh no, I don’t agree with you.” They won’t enquire and find out what sort of a day it is actually. So that sort of doubting is a nuisance and a hindrance to meditation. In other words, where this question of doubt is concerned, the real thing, if you want to put it positively, is to have a completely open mind.

This is perhaps one of the most important aspects for right meditation, to have a completely open mind, never to think, “I have now got the truth.” The truth keeps emerging. If I stop grasping at a particular truth which has been formulated as an idea, then there is the possibility of a far more wonderful idea growing out of the old one, otherwise I don’t grow, I am stuck fast. We have seen this in the history of the religions of the world, the dogmas and the doctrines, “I believe this, that and the other, and that’s the finish of it.” You see what terrible harm that has done in history in connection with practically all the religions of the world. So, keep an open mind. The open mind means that your heart is open, and if you heart is also open, then there is love, and in the state of open hearted love, wisdom can grow.

So now, we should realize that these are the hindrances. Obviously we cannot deal with all of them straightaway either today or tomorrow, and then after that our course is over. But just remember these, and you can practise for yourself, bearing in mind each.

Now today we will turn our attention in meditation to the process of thought which comes up in the mind as soon as we start. So, let the body be perfectly comfortable, balanced and just feel at ease, perfect ease of body, and let the rhythm of the breath be very comfortable, the rhythm of the breathing… See if there are any strains in the abdominal region, no tension there, then no tension in the diaphragm, and you will find that you will sit comfortably erect, elastically erect, not stiffly erect, but comfortably erect. Let the head balance perfectly upon a relaxed and easy neck. Now you will find that your breathing is at ease, just your natural breathing… Just be aware of what the physiologists call the vigilance centre, which is just about here at the back of the head. There is a nerve centre in the brain there which is the vigilance centre, that is to say, when you are awake you know you are awake, and it is that which is associated with paying attention to anything. So let that vigilance centre be the officer in command, so to say, and be completely aware of the whole body. And let the feeling of peace and quiet come from there right down into the whole body, through the whole body, remembering that the whole physical body (and this is scientifically known nowadays) is surrounded with an electrical field, which is due to the living body itself… Now after a few moments, after feeling a sense of peace, in a few seconds, you will probably find various thoughts or pictures coming into your mind. Just note those pictures for a couple of minutes… Don’t try to stop them, and don’t criticise them, just see exactly what they are… For this morning’s special practice see in which way they are related to the grasping for pleasure, for satisfaction of one’s desires or ambitions or whatever it is. Just see in what way they are related to the root of the difficulty, namely greed… Notice particularly the subtle forms which greed takes, particularly culturally. You may say that there are no thoughts or desires in my mind at the moment, perhaps tunes are running through your mind or pictures, or your thoughts are towards some teacher whom you follow or would like to follow, or some particular ideal which you have. But notice the power of greed at work in all these subtle forms. You enjoy these, you want to possess them. The very act of giving yourself to God or the teacher or anything has a possessive element in it. Watch it very carefully, it is very subtle, very deep. And whatever it is, don’t say to yourself, “I must get rid of it.” Don’t get rid of it. This is your teacher, this is the actual fact about oneself. I am like that, I am this greed. Look at it that way. Look quietly… The vigilance centre, the attentiveness, which is the officer in command, so to say, must remain perfectly poised, giving no orders either for or against, but just watching, watching… As you watch don’t say, “I am experiencing this” or “I am like this”. Just observe the fact, that this is greed… You may notice if you are attentive intensely and rightly that when you see, actually see, not merely say, but really see, that this is greed, you are aware of the force of greed throughout the world. And you see how greed, not only in oneself but throughout the world, gives rise to evil, to the diseased state of the mind, and therefore to sorrow, unnecessary sorrow. See it, don’t be shocked by it, don’t be afraid of it, just quietly look at it. Don’t dislike it or hate it. There it is — greed. And if your attentiveness is pure and you are calm inside, you will experience the reality of compassion coming right out of your innermost being, your very physical heart, so to say, and spreading through you, just compassion, something which we do not experience in the ordinary way. And you will realize in actual awareness the unity with all mankind. There is this suffering for oneself, for mankind through greed. See it…

Here follows a period of meditative walking

You hear that stream flowing past. It makes a sound, a single note. It can be heard, let the ear hear it. Just here is this rocky cliff, just see it. Inside one’s own body the bloodstream flows making its own sound, the heartbeats making their own sound, and everything in harmony with everything else. So there is the Song of Life going on. Just as that Song goes on and no one instrument, so to say, interferes with another but harmonizes with all the others, so do the stream, the rock, the trees, the air, the clouds all make one great harmony. We have lost our sense of harmony with Nature. Here is a living organism, Nature is a living organism, and every particular living organism is part of the whole living organism. It is that wholeness of which we are rarely aware, but in surroundings like this and walking like this, you can restore that awareness.

Notice how in Nature the stream rushes down from the mountainside. And how does it move? Along the path of least resistance. It does not impose its will, it cannot impose its will upon the banks, it just flows down where it finds its proper place. We impose our will, we do not flow with the stream of life, we do not flow with the stream but impose our will because we are slaves of our particular desires. Therefore we come into conflict with people, with situations and so on. This conflict in us is the source of everlasting unnecessary sorrow. Most of our sorrow and trouble and anxiety is unnecessary, we don’t really learn from it, we only hurt ourselves, and, worse still, we hurt others. But here when you walk meditatively like this you restore the whole consciousness of harmonising with life. You restore that consciousness and then amongst men and in the city and in what we call difficult circum­stances, this consciousness of harmony is at work, and we do the least possible harm then in our life, otherwise we do much more harm.

Look again how the stream rushes down, down, down, down, till it meets the ocean and loses its identity. It is always moving downwards, and look at the way the roots of a tree go downwards towards the centre of the earth, towards a centre. In Nature this is the tendency, towards a centre. The idea of the centre comes to full consciousness in man, self-consciousness. And then he becomes self-ish, self-centred, but he has to grow out of that into the Infinite, and he is ignorant of that. Therefore he struggles. But do not despise selfishness or say, “That is evil, I must get rid of it.” No, learn from it. All life coming down to a centre, a single centre, is the energy of the Infinite imploding upon itself to become this supremely dense and ultimate material manifestation.

This is a fact in the whole cosmos, what scientists have called the black holes in space for example. And what happens afterwards? First consider what happens with the black hole. Light itself cannot move out of that confinement because the gravitation, the gravity, the density, in Sanskrit tamas, darkness, is so powerful that light itself cannot escape. That’s why we call it a black hole, we can’t see what’s happening. But this tremendous condensation or concentration is the very thing that ultimately explodes and becomes a galaxy, becomes a universe. So you see the great movement of the Infinite from the infinitely large to the infinitely small and back again into the infinitely large. So the infinitely small, the very dense, the utterly self-centred must not be despised. The utterly self-centred becomes invisible like the black hole in space. Light can’t come out of it. We restore ourselves to our true relation­ship by understanding this self-centredness. If you understand it then the extreme concentration into materiality changes, and thereby you are Man, not otherwise.

The sound of that stream is a mantra, a spell, a word of power. The sound of the stream you can hear, the sound of the wind when it blows hard through the trees you can hear, the sound of this rock you cannot hear. But touch this rock. This rock is me, is like me, I am like it. That stream is like me, I am like it. The air, the light, what we call empty space, they are all combined in Man, the little cosmos. And every one of them is a thing of power, a note of power in the great symphony of life.

So let the mind be very, very quiet, and you will become sensitive to these things. Remember, this is not just letting your imagination run riot. Do be very careful, not just imagination going wild, it has to be a sensitivity with the mind perfectly quiet. The image-making faculty, imagination, has stopped making useless fantasies and when it stops making untrue, useless fantasies, then the reality of everything becomes clear. That is why silence is necessary all the time, so that this awareness of the unity grows and grows. It is most important. This, then, is not different from that. If I hurt the rock, if I cut down the tree, I am hurting and cutting down myself. If we can bear that in mind, then we shall do the least possible harm while we are alive in this world. Nature can teach us all these things. Let’s continue our walk meditatively.

A walk like this is a wonderful opportunity for developing the power of the right kind of concentration of mind. Be com­pletely attentive to this, which is here, to the fact that this living body is walking through here. You will find the flow of thought in your mind, in your brain, all sorts of memories, all sorts of associated ideas are called up. They are disturbances, they are like an audience which starts talking or clapping or humming to itself whilst the music is going on and disturbing the music. Be completely attentive to this, just this. And it is not only solid, liquid or gaseous, it is all these which the senses convey to us, and a lot more, and that lot more will somehow slowly filter through because the dormant, the sleeping power of the mind to be sensitive and respond to these forces will have a chance of gradually awakening and growing without any imaginative pictures about it. So we watch the fact that this thing keeps talking all the time. You hear the stream and it might remind you of the Pastoral Symphony, second movement! No, don’t let the mind wander, if it wanders, just notice, “Oh, the mind is wandering.” Just notice and be intensely attentive to the rock, to the living plant, to the water, to the light, everything, intensely attentive NOW. I’ll be dealing with this in our talk probably tomorrow in the afternoon.

We can only have short walks like this but, whenever you get the opportunity, especially on a brilliantly sunny day when the sky is quite clear, walk right up till you come to a path moving to the right here, we’ll come to it, and go a little way up that, and you will gradually see the entire circle of mountains around you. It’s a magnificent sight, I expect most of you know it already. Just sit quietly there and become one with the whole of Nature around you. The power and strength which is symbolised in all the mountains, in their solidity and in the way the peaks rise up pointing to infinity, is the kind of strength that is in us too in our own spirits.

Now, the mountain is fixed, is rigid. You get the blade of grass, it is utterly resilient, it is not rigid, it yields to every movement. The tree is a little stronger, but if a storm rises and the tree falls, all the blade of grass does is that, and when the storm is over the blade of grass comes up again. But the tree has fallen. And through the ages, because of wind and rain and ice and its expansion, the mountain slowly breaks. So you see what strength means, what real power means. The strength of Nature never fights against any part of itself. It just responds exactly according to the forces at play. Now that is real strength, the power to be resilient. If the wind blows, then all right, and then up. In that there is extraordinary power. We have to be firm as a rock where truth is concerned, note, not merely right and wrong because those are concepts in our mind which continuously change through the ages. What we thought right five centuries ago we don’t quite think is right now, it’s different according to circumstances. Such ideas change. But right and wrong or truth as regards the reality of our being and our growth is something firm for us like the mountains. Firm as a rock, then, where that is concerned. Give way to others in everything that does not matter so much, like the grass, and you will produce harmony far more easily than by trying to change the other person. It is very difficult but very important. But we can do it if we are like the blade of grass where our human relationships are concerned, firm as a rock where our loyalty to truth is concerned. When you walk meditatively like this, you become conscious of the way in which the forces of life work, and you get into tune with them, otherwise, ignorant of the way in which the forces of life, of the whole world work, we struggle and break ourselves in the process. And this produces unnecessary sorrow. But you have to become conscious of this. I think all of you were present yesterday evening at the talk and I mentioned this point. I just mentioned it in passing that we cause a lot of unnecessary sorrow in life by being rigid like the rock in the wrong situation. And that is because we are the slaves of our desires, our beliefs, our ideas. We don’t leave room for everything else.

Now I think we had better start walking back. And when you find a lovely cloudless day, go by yourself or with just one or two friends to a point where you can see the whole and just become one with it, and remain silent. That’s important, very, very important. It’s the supremely important thing in the discipline of the religious life, not only to keep your mouth shut (that is the kindergarten stage, to keep your mouth shut and not chatter), but this. Remember Jesus’s words “Watch and pray.” What is he asking you to watch? The dance in the dance hall? Watch this, what’s happening here right and day. And then, being in communion comes about. The Buddha said sammā sati, perfect mindful­ness, perfect watchfulness, and sammā samādhi, perfect communion. So you see, there is nothing like our own body, the little cosmos, and like Nature, the big cosmos, to be our true teacher.

From the Editor

One Light was founded in 2009 by the Rt. Revd. Charles Mugleston, co-founder of the Edward Fitzgerald International Poetry Peace Prize.

It offers for small or large groups staged readings combining words, music, film extracts, photographs, lighting and sound effects, with authentic furniture and flowers, etc.

The repertoire at present includes Tao Now (Lao Tsze and Chwang Tsze), The Ruba’iyat of Omar Khayyam, and Centuries of Meditation (Thomas Traherne).

For those interested, the address is:

One Light
The Well Chapel
Mow Hill
Witnesham
Ipswich
Suffolk
IP6 9EH

Phiroz Mehta wrote four chapters of The Health Cookery Book, probably in the early years after the Second World War. He seemed to have intended it for publication, but it does not appear ever to have been printed

Continued from part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4 and part 5

How to serve a salad

1. Serve up all the ingredients separately — lettuce leaves arranged in a circle with the hearts in the middle: water-cress in little bunches, or loose: grated carrot in a heap: beetroot sliced thin: cucumber either sliced thin or grated (with the skin): little red radishes in a heap: tomatoes, whole, or cut into halves or quarters only, not sliced: celery in long stalks, the hearts sliced lengthwise into as many parts as there are people to serve. Except the green leaf ingredients and tomatoes, all the others may be grated and placed in separate little heaps on a single large plate, or in separate little bowls. These bowls may be arranged in a pretty symmetrical pattern round the central glass bowl of the green stuffs.
2. Serve in a single large flat dish — a nest of large and small lettuce leaves alternately placed round the dish: three or four bunches of water-cress at the corners: celery stalks between them pointing towards the centre: two heaps of grated carrot at right angles to two heaps of beetroot (the four forming a square): a pile of red radishes in the middle with a circle of sliced cucumber: and whole tomatoes fringing the edge of the dish.
3. Serve in a large glass bowl all mixed together — break the lettuce up with your hands (avoid using a knife), mix up with grated cabbage, water-cress, and celery cut fine, slice up tomatoes, cucumber, and radishes, grate the carrot, add the desired amount of oil and lemon, or any special salad dressing, put in a bit of mint and parsley, and mix thoroughly. Prepare about 15 minutes before serving.
4. Egg mayonnaise — nest of lettuce leaves with a little water-cress, chopped celery, grated carrot and beetroot, sliced tomatoes and sliced hard-boiled eggs. Place the carrot and beetroot in two heaps and ring them round with alternate slices of tomatoes and eggs. Pour the mayonnaise over them. Asparagus, cooked green peas of French beans or mushrooms taste well in an egg mayonnaise.

How often should salads be taken?

The average person should take four large salads, and three or four small ones (taken with an entrée for instance) during the course of the week. They may be taken at lunch or dinner, as desired.

If the digestion is very weak, or if you are suffering from duodenal or gastric ulcers, or other similar severe complaint, you should consult a dietician after you have consulted your doctor, and know exactly what is wrong with you. The dietician will give you proper advice regarding your food. As you improve and the organs become normal again, they will be able to deal adequately with the normal amount of salads.

The objection to salads in cases of duodenal or gastric ulcers, etc., is that the raw vegetables are too highly irritant.

It must also be remembered that raw vegetable and fruit salads are without exception the most powerful influence in maintaining health and vitality, for helping towards curing you of most diseases (with very few exceptions), and keeping you fit in body and clear in brain (for these salads are the purifiers of the whole system, immeasurably superior to any drugs or medicines or mechanical means).

So, under conditions of certain illnesses, you must lessen, or for a few weeks even avoid salads. For other illnesses (except of course where all food must be avoided and a strict fast observed), you should increase salads to one good salad meal a day.

Also, if your digestion is quite strong, and your natural inclinations are in favour of it, take a large salad meal every day, i.e. a raw vegetable salad or a mixed fruit and vegetable salad every day.

Mixed cooked and raw vegetable salads, and all salads containing flesh foods of any sort should be taken sparingly only.

Grow your own vegetables

Whenever possible, grow your own vegetables. The difference between home grown vegetables freshly picked, and those bought in a shop is great, the former producing superior results, and having the more delicious taste. If you have the opportunity to grow your own vegetables, pay attention to the right culture of the soil. The main principle to remember here is that you should return to the soil as much as you possibly can of decaying vegetable matter, and avoid all excess of animal or artificial manure.

A talk given by Phiroz Mehta at 47 Lillian Road, Richmond, London on 6^th May 1994

In the house of Life, is a door named Death. On the other side of it is Bliss. If the door claims you, the self, and ineluctably it will, you will never know that Bliss, but if you, unselfed, swing that portal fearlessly with pure hand and heart, you are at one with Bliss and you know Immortality.

Entering the stillness and the silence, Death is seen as the perfector, and the consummator. Seeing this peacefully and fearlessly, I am filled with the wonder of creative renewal. Free of psychological time and the sorrow it holds, timeless eternity is realised in every moving flicker of Time, as I die wholly to Time’s beat whilst alive in the body.

In this perfect rhythm is the dance of life, the experiencing of the deathless state. Death is not destruction nor annihilation, Death is the extinction of my illusion of continuity. So I see Death is other-life, the non-finite non-being, because of which there is no “me” to be repeated again, and I see that Death, Life’s immortal and inseparable twin, offers the hospitality of Life, incomprehensible, silent containment by the Absolute, in the unknown and unknowable eternity.

Austere? Then remember that for us who live as mortals there is only the way of love and understanding.

Heart speaks to heart noiselessly. Who loves hears. Who listens understands. So your tears can be wiped away ere they roll down. Even down here in feebleness to see and hear and understand the inconsolability of Death is to be made deathless by Life and realise its benediction.

This is Love. This is Freedom. This is Reality.

Deep in the womb of the timeless truth lies the certainty that we are not mere pawns of fate, but the bearers of a divine destiny, the destiny to be Man. It was there before the world was, hidden in the night of sleep till the dawn of awakening, and that golden daybreak glowed with sweet and silent laughter when the still mind spoke its wordless message, promising redemption through enlightenment by wisdom, peace through compassion, freedom through that beauty in which selfness is not. Such is the reality of Death. Let Death be. Power of transmutation! Restorer of union with life abundant! And the flow of this life is the stream of compassion, wisdom, truth, purity, goodness, beauty, virtue — religion in fulfilment in every moment of daily life and work.

Thus it is that Death establishes me in my aloneness even as Transcendence is the Alone, the Life which is the creative pulse. Life never stands static, nor does it move towards a goal. It writes on the edge of the Eternal Mind and laughingly erases the old word as it writes the new. The Eternal Mind itself is ever transparent, spacious, silent.

At various meetings we have considered together the identity of the one, primordial, undifferentiated creative energy and the one pure, absolute consciousness. As this creative energy differentiates and this pure consciousness proliferates, the cosmos emerges. Human beings, finite and mortal, are part of this cosmos and whilst alive can converse with each other.

Today your meeting with me is our last one, for the living person whom you knew bodily as Phiroz is dead. In due time all that made up Phiroz, the particular being, will be fully absorbed into the one universal non-being, which is nameless, infinite, eternal and immortal. That is the One Only, the Alone, the Transcendence which wholly subsumes every finite, temporal and mortal being.

Some of you may wish to preserve a memory of Phiroz. Then remember him as one who tried to live as your devoted servant for the sake of your happiness and of your fruition. So, at this last meeting please accept this message:

Even as he cared for you, do you love one another. Make each other happy and devote yourselves to bringing all creation to fruition.

When each separate being dies, Transcendence wholly subsumes that being into the deathless state, the Infinite, the Eternal, the Immortal. So, although this is our last meeting our true communion is of the deathless state. In the words of the poet Wordsworth:

…a sense sublime
Of something far more deeply interfused,
Whose dwelling is the light of setting suns,
And the round ocean, and the living air,
And the blue sky, and in the mind of man:
A motion and a spirit, that impels
All thinking things, all objects of all thought,
And rolls through all things.

So, goodbye. God be with you. May you all keep going without flagging and fare on in good health, and peace, and love.

By Richard of Saint Victor

The first and fundamental task of the mind, which strives to climb the summit of knowledge, must be to know itself. It is the summit of knowledge to know that one knows oneself completely. The complete knowledge of the reasonable mind is a great and high mountain. It is higher than the peaks of all worldly knowledge, it looks down from above on all the wisdom of the world, and on all the knowledge in the world.